The Importance of Teaching Cultural Awareness in Design Education: Evidence from Interior Design

Abstract

This article presents findings from a higher education interior design course at a U.S. university. For the course, titled the "Heritage Studio," a series of projects were developed aimed at developing selfawareness, empathy and cultural awareness in the students. Research and documentation of individual students' family histories provided the foundation for the projects. Throughout the process of completing projects for the course, students were encouraged to become self-aware of their personal heritage (cultural, linguistic, religious etc.) as a pathway toward developing empathy and appreciation for the personal history of their classmates. Upon completion of the course, student feedback was collected. Responses were qualitatively analyzed to assess students' learning of cultural awareness. The four themes that emerged as a result were: (1) realization of family impact on personal development, (2) realization of past affecting present (3) increased awareness of both diversity and commonalities among classmates and, (4) increased respect for one's own relatives and for the personal history of others. Details of these findings are described in this paper.